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More Bush Administration Lawbreaking

Over at Ars Technica, I report on the latest allegations of illegal activities by the Bush administration. Back in March, a Department of Justice report revealed that the FBI had sent hundreds of letters to telecom providers requesting that due to “exigent circumstances,” the providers turn over customer records without a warrant. The FBI later acknowledged that these letters were improper (read: illegal) and announced that the use of those “exigent letters” had been suspended.

Now, thanks to a freedom-of-information request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we learn that some of the letters not only requested call records for specific phone numbers, but also asked the providers to “provide a community of interest” for each phone number. It’s not clear exactly what information was provided in response to that request, but in a Monday blog post, EFF’s Kurt Opsahl argues that the request was almost certainly illegal—and would have been illegal even if they had been made as part of a legally-authorized warrant or national security letter.

“We need a new word for this,” Opsahl writes, “what do you call an illegality piled on top of another illegality? Illegal squared?”

Asked about the latest allegations of executive branch lawbreaking, White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend pointed to the creation of a new “compliance unit” in the FBI. It’s good to hear the FBI is taking the law so seriously, but I thought the Constitution already provides for a “compliance unit.” It’s called the judicial branch.